A Study of Hadiths regarding Prevarication from the Viewpoint of M. Taqi Majlesi

Prevarication is a propounded subject in jurisprudence and hadith which is derived from the verses of the holy Quran and the manners of the holy Prophet’s family. It is impressive to understand the content and the purposes of their holy speeches. The late Mohammad Taqi Majlesi proved the necessity of prevarication through the law of keeping the reverence of Muslim as well as the other reasons and laws. He differentiates between prevarication and dissimulation since some parts of hadiths have issued for dissimulation and not for prevarication. Majlesi considers the degrees of the people’s understanding in prevarication. In his opinion recognition of prevarication’s hadith through documentary evidence refers to the narrations of the former Imam and the presence of the ordinary narrator as the audience of Imam. He considers content evidence as follows: giving order to be silent, analogy in hadith and contrast of hadith with frequent News, ambiguity in hadith, generalization in speech, disarrangement and confusion of texts, negated questioning, evidence of similarity with ordinary people and agreement with their opinions. Majlesi deems interlocutor and necessity as two mandatory conditions for prevarication.